A story about learning through traveling

Yesterday and today a French family with 2 children (aged 7 & 9) stayed with a local family in Romania, that also has 2 children (aged 12 & 13).

 
The main occupation of the local family is shepherding. They live without electricity at a 1100 m altitude. Motivated to educate their children about the hardship of life, make them appreciate better what they have (as they like to complain), and also keep them away from the gadgets they are so dependent on from such an early age, the French parents took their children on this trip. Moreover, their grandparents also used to live such a life, but now in France this is hard to find.

 
Hopefully, the children learned; I think it is a great way to bring across a message to children by making them experiment things, and, even better, to get them out of their comfort zone.

The local family enjoyed a their guests. It is a big deal for them to have visitors from abroad, and it made their days livelier. Plus, they learned from the French man, who is a chiropodist, what kind of shoes they should buy for their children: simple and flat ones.

 
The French parents appreciated the simple, stress-free, attitude to life that the local family has and were wondering who’s happier: them who own a lot, but have significant stress levels because of their bank loans and big expenses; or the local family who was settling for less and seemed very content?

So finally, it was not only about the children learning. Adults do learn from such experiences too. By raising important questions about their lives, it got them thinking. Learning through traveling is possible for all parties involved.

Some more pictures from this wonderful experience for all are in this Facebook album. Also, a similar itinerary of the tour that the French family did can be found on our new website: Family Tour of Romania.